Final Exam Review

Texts

Haggard, King Solomon’s Mines; Mahfouz, Midaq Alley; Tagore, The Home and the World; Rushdie, Midnight’s Children

From Empire Writing: Livingstone (38-41); Stanley (42-50); Kingsley (234-248); Conrad (248-270); Various poetry (274-294); Sorabji (298-304); Naidu (311-316); Tennyson (59-64); Seeley (72-79); Kipling (99-110); Aurobindo(320-329); Tagore’s Poetry (377-381)

The final exam will be made up of THREE essay questions. These are not short answer questions. You should form a complete essay including an argumentative thesis statement with reasons and evidence to prove it. The point is not to regurgitate simple plotlines, either. You should try to see similarities between texts and compare the different themes.

For example, if a question asked about the types of nationalism espoused by Tagore in The Home and the World and by Aurobindo in “The Object of Passive Resistance,” than you should describe their different views by relating them to one another. In other words, you should compare and contrast the different views. (There could be a question on this, by the way!)

Study Guide

--Feminism in each of the texts. How do these texts view women? Look especially at the four novels and A Passage to India. Are women powerful? Are they equal with men? Are women the cause of social problems depicted in these works? 

--Hybridity. Define hybrid as we have been discussing it in class. How is it used in the novels, in Kipling’s short story “His Chance in Life,” and in The Mummy Returns? Who are hybrids? Why does the novel describe them this way? What is their function in the texts?

--Consider Fredric Jameson’s idea that “all third-world texts are necessarily […] national allegories.” Would you agree or disagree with this statement? What are the problems with the statement itself, and does it seem to work for the three third-world texts we have discussed in class? Make sure you are able to define allegory.

--What is the relationship between literature and imperialism in general and in the texts we have read? Be able to tie a few different texts into this one.

--Be able to discuss racism in the different works we have read (including the third-world ones). How do the characters (and the novels) treat other “races” and cultures?

--Consider the interactions between different cultures. How do they interact in the literatures we have read, and what do the authors convey through these interactions?